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Visiting art galleries is a wonderful thing to do. It’s great being surrounded by so many fine works of art and being able to explore the gallery at your own pace. One of the things I love most is wandering round galleries, discovering new works I’ve never seen before and learning more new things about art. Here are 5 ways you can make the most of visiting an art gallery:

1. Give yourself plenty of time

Galleries are meant to be explored at a leisurely pace. You’re not going to properly enjoy yourself if you’re rushing from place to place because you have somewhere to be. You’re not going to be able to fully appreciate the artworks if you quickly glance over them before moving on to the next one. Make sure you’ve got plenty time in your day to spend wandering round the gallery. That way, you can spend more time looking at, and appreciating, the works of art.

2. Know about everything that gallery has to offer

Lots of art galleries are pretty big. It can be very easy to get lost or even miss out whole rooms altogether. Before you set off exploring the gallery, take a few minutes to study the guide map and see everything there is to offer. If you just wandered round, you could very well end up missing something you might enjoy seeing. Make sure you’re aware of any special events and exhibitions throughout the year.

3. Read up on works you want to see

Galleries are great for discovering new artists, but if you know there’s an artist whose works you’re keen to see, it sometimes helps to do a bit of research. Give yourself a bit of background knowledge so when you view the artwork for the first time, you can form more of an informed opinion about it; the more you know about an artwork, the more you’ll appreciate it. You’ll find plenty of information in the gallery itself, whether it’s the short bios accompanying artworks or guides, brochures and books you can get for free or buy in the gallery itself.

4. Speak to people

While you can learn plenty about an artist or a particular piece of work from printed materials at the gallery itself, you can also learn a lot from speaking to people. You never know what you can learn from other people, whether it’s the people visiting to view works of art or whether it’s the people who work at the gallery. Events are really good opportunities to meet like-minded people who enjoy art and want to learn more about it.

5. Note down your favourites

A good way to make the most of your visit to an art gallery is to take something away from your visit. Lots of people come across a new artist, for example, and want to get more into their works, but they don’t write down the artist’s name and they forget. All it takes is a quick note: you just have to note down whatever it is you like and want to look up later and then there’s no chance of you forgetting it later.

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Painting is a great hobby and, if you’re lucky, it can also become a great career. One of the best things about painting is that it allows your creativity to flourish. You can also learn new things about yourself and the world around you when you paint. Here are five ways to learn more painting:

1. Visit galleries

Paintings are meant to be viewed in person, not from a computer screen, so get yourself off to an art gallery. You can easily learn lots about painting online, but there’s nothing more immersive than the experience of visiting a gallery and being surrounded by all sorts of art works. Not only can you learn about paintings from reading descriptions and guides and speaking with the curators, you can learn from viewing them up close.

2. Join an art club

Joining an art club is a great way to learn more painting: you’ll be surrounded by like-minded people who are all interested in painting and want to learn from one another. Clubs are all about pooling ideas together and sharing them; whether you’re a novice or a more experienced painter, you’re bound to pick up some tips and learn new things about painting. Clubs are also great if you have a busy schedule because they can easily be fitted in and they provide a nice break from the routine of life.

3. Go to art school

If you’re really committed to learning more about painting, why not go to art school? Have a look round and see what art courses are available. It’s a big commitment, even if you only do a year-long course, but the information you’ll learn will be invaluable. Not only will you get lots of time to hone your craft, you’ll learn from experts and get help perfecting your skills. Speaking from experience, going to art school definitely helped me a lot and I wouldn’t be the artist I am today without it.

4. Practice, practice, practice!

It goes without saying that you learn by practicing. The more you paint, the more you’ll learn about painting and what it does for you. As you paint more, you’ll also learn more about your skills and your likes and dislikes. Painting is a great way to express your creative side and there is a lot to it. There are loads of wonderful things to learn about painting and you’re not going to know everything if you do one painting then stop, so keep practicing!

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Hello everyone,

This week I thought I’d share an interesting article I came across a while back. This article is called ‘Study Says Making Art Is Good For Your Brain, And We Say You Should Listen’ and was published on Huffington Post. As the title suggests, it’s all about how creating works of art can actually improve your mental faculties. As an artist myself, this is something that I find really interesting.

The article is focused on a study that was carried out in Germany and had a small group of recently retired elderly people as participants. The whole point of the study was to see whether creating art would have a positive effect on the participants’ brains. What this study showed was that creating art could slow down or even completely stop the decline of a number of brain functions due to old age. In other words, creating art gives the brain the exercise it needs so it doesn’t start rotting away, so to speak. The brain is like a car: you have to keep it in the best condition, otherwise it isn’t going to work as best as it can. Creating art is one way of keeping the brain fuelled.

I find the set-up of the study really interesting. There were 28 participants in total – these were split into two groups of 14. The study lasted for 10 weeks and for the duration of the study, one group attended a weekly two-hour practical art class, while the other group attended a weekly art appreciation course. Scientists scanned the participants’ brains before and after the study. It was found that the people who had taken part in the practical art class showed a significant improvement in psychological resilience and had more functional connectivity. The results from the art appreciation group weren’t as promising.

I know the study was quite small and was carried out on people of a certain age group, but the results are still promising. People have always said that being creative is good for you, so it’s encouraging to see scientific evidence showing that creativity can have a positive effect on the brain.

Here’s the article if you’re interested in reading it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/08/how-art-changes-your-brain_n_5567050.html

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All my life I’ve wanted to paint, but it wasn’t until the other week that I had a good think about how painting’s benefitted me throughout my life so far. I’ve always been determined to become a professional artist yet I never truly appreciated what good painting was doing for me on the way to becoming professional. There were times when I thought I would never make it, yet painting was still doing me some good – I just never realised it at the time.

The main way painting’s been good for me is because it’s given me something to concentrate on and something to aim towards. I think that’s the way it’s benefitted me the most, to be honest. Without painting, I don’t know what I’d be doing. In an ideal world, I would have always been a painter; this isn’t an ideal world, but at least I’ve always had my painting to keep me driven and motivated.

I think painting’s also helped me develop as a person. Through painting I’ve learned to take a step back and look at the world in a different way - I don’t think I would have gained that perspective from anything else. I can zone out from the hustle and bustle of daily life and devote my full attention to my work. Because painting helps me relax, I’ve learned to take a calmer approach to a lot of things in life. Again, I wouldn’t have learned to take that calmer approach had it not been for painting.

Finally, I think painting’s allowed for me to get to know myself better. The more I learned about painting, the more I learned about myself, because painting is something creative that requires you to think about what you want and how you want your work to be. Whenever you work on a painting, you pour a lot of emotion and feeling into it; for me landscapes evoke memories from my childhood of travels through Europe. Painting landscapes is a personal experience because it involves me taking inspiration from memories and thinking about how they’ve influenced me.

How do you think painting’s good for you? How has it benefitted you?

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Art is a vast and complex subject with a rich and colourful history. It’s something I find utterly fascinating and compelling. There’s nothing more exciting than appreciating someone’s creative work and trying to gain some sort of meaning from it.

In my career as an artist, I’ve mainly focused on landscape painting. While it’s certainly a very popular genre of art, there are plenty of other areas of art I could have specialised in. I could have focused on pottery, photography or even abstract painting, for example. So why do I paint landscapes? Why is this the area I’ve come to specialise in?

People who know me know I had quite a nomadic childhood. Instead of spending my childhood rooted in one place, I spent mine travelling throughout Europe, living in different places and gaining valuable experiences from different countries. Though I’ve since settled down, I think those childhood travels instilled a love of nature in me. I loved seeing scenic landscapes, each one different from the last. Appreciating the natural beauty of the world around me was something I loved doing from a young age and it’s always stayed with me.

Even to this day I still love nothing more than going for a drive and appreciating the beautiful landscapes around me. One of my favourite hobbies is going for drives and doing a bit of plein air painting to capture some of the beautiful scenery I see in a painting.

So that’s why I paint landscapes. If my childhood had been different, I don’t know what I would be doing now in terms of art. I might not even be interested in art! Looking back, I’m glad I have the same appreciation for the natural world that I did during my childhood. I’m very fond of my childhood and I’m very glad my love of the natural world has always stayed with me and has become a key part of who I am and what I do. Being a landscape painter is what I was always meant to do.

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Artsy Shark has asked a number of artists what their creative inspiration is. What drives them to spend their time creating art? Why do they get joy out of being creative? When they’re in the creative spirit, what do they think about to push them forward and realise their full potential as artists?

One of the artists Artsy Shark questioned was Joanne Perkins, a landscape artist from Berkshire. When asked about her creative inspiration, Joanne explained how she had lived a somewhat nomadic childhood travelling throughout Europe. She visited and saw lots of different places, many of which she found interesting, captivating and inspiring. Seeing these places inspired her to paint and continues to do so to this day. While she specialises in painting scenes from around Berkshire, she always recalls her childhood journeys whenever she paints. Part of her creative process involves reflecting on those inspirational journeys throughout Europe. Not only does Joanne capture the Berkshire scenery in a unique and thoughtful way, but she also infuses her work with feelings inspired by her childhood travels.

Joanne loves exploring Berkshire and finding new places to paint, whether it’s a popular park or somewhere a bit off the beaten path. She manages to make every scene beautiful and captivating; her work has a sort of mystical and dreamlike quality that makes it stand out. She’s able to create inspiring paintings in this way because she always remembers her creative inspiration when she works. Thanks to this, it’s clear that Joanne has found her niche. It’s great to see an artist who keeps their past experiences and memories and close to them at all times. Joanne’s found her winning formula and Artsy Shark looks forward to hearing more about her work in the future.


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Here’s the original Artsy Shark article:

http://www.artsyshark.com/2015/01/20/studio/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+artsyshark%2FNCiC+%28ArtsySharkFeed%29

Achieving your dream is never going to be easy. I know too well how things can happen and life can get in the way. There’s no list of set rules of how to achieve your dream, but there are a few things you can do to help you get there.

1. Think about what your dreams are

It would be great if we could just devote our lives to realising our dreams, but real life will always come first. Take a step back from the rush of daily life and devote some time to yourself. Find a nice, quiet place where you can have a think to yourself and reflect on what it is you want to achieve. You may remember something from a while ago that you’ve never actively pursued or you may remember a childhood dream that would be worth chasing. It’s important to have these moments to yourself, otherwise you’re not going to have a clear idea of what it is you want.

2. Be determined

Dreams don’t achieve themselves. If you want to achieve something, you have to put in the hard work necessary. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out and sometimes you’ll feel like it’s never going to happen, but you have to always be determined, no matter what. Make a sort of reminder and keep it somewhere you’ll see it regularly; if you dream of visiting a particular country, for example, you could have a photo of that country on your desk at work. You’ll be regularly reminded of what you’re aiming for and it will keep motivating you to work for it.

3. Choose the right path

With being an artist, for example, there are many different paths you could take that could lead to you becoming an artist. Sometimes you will find yourself having to decide between several different choices – which do you go for? When you can’t decide, think about what stands the greater chance of getting you there, even if it isn’t quick and easy. Sometimes you have to put in a lot of time and effort for things to start happening. Having said that, there are advantages in everything, so do consider all your options carefully before making that decision.

4. Know what you’re doing

It goes without saying that you have to have at least some idea of how you’re going to achieve your dream. If you have no idea how you’re going to do it, get some research done and see what options there are for you. A good thing to do is to speak to people who are further ahead than you in whatever it is you’re pursuing. Be organised and draw up a few different plans of what you could be doing. You have to be doing something, even if it’s just taking the first step, because doing nothing isn’t going to get you anywhere.

5. Don’t feel rushed

It can take a lot of time and effort to realise your dreams, so don’t get too down if you haven’t reached your goals yet. It’s important to understand that these things can take a lot of time. Don’t be impatient and don’t get frustrated, otherwise you won’t be in the right frame of mind to achieve anything and you’ll burn out. Part of the joy of having a dream is enjoying the time it takes to realise that dream; it’s better to make small steps towards something rather than large strides.

6. Remember to step back every now and then

It’s great if you have a dream and you’re focused on achieving it. What’s even greater is if you can take a step back every now and then. If you devote all of your energy to something, it’s going to take over your life and drain you. What you need is something else to focus on every once in a while – make time for hobbies and things that aren’t directly linked to your goals. Your dream shouldn’t take over your entire life, instead it should enrich different areas of your life. Even pursuing your dream can benefit your life in different ways, so don’t forget about other aspects of your life.

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Plein air painting is the practice of painting outdoors. It was a key part of the landscape painting movement and is still very popular today. Artists started appreciating the natural world more and more when they stepped outside and decided to paint the beautiful landscapes they came across. As a landscape painter myself, I practice plein air painting a lot because it’s a wonderful way to get work done and see more of the world around us. Here are three things I love about plein air painting:

1. Discovering new places

There’s nothing like going for an aimless drive in the country and finding a beautiful spot you think no one else in the world knows about. There have been many times when I’ve find somewhere off the beaten path and I’ve thought, ‘this would make a wonderful painting!’ Going on these drives gets me excited because I never know what I’m going to find – you’ll never get to see the wonderful scenes just a short drive away from where you are unless you hop in your car and go exploring!

2. Drawing inspiration from the natural world

As a landscape artist, I’m in my element when I’m surrounded by the natural world and I’m painting a beautiful scene. A lot of artists draw inspiration from photos or pictures of landscapes, but there’s really nothing like being out there and seeing it for yourself. What I like the most is when you feel inspired by something you were never expecting to come across; sometimes I might see something that reminds me of a happy time in my childhood, for example.

3. Interacting with others

This is something that doesn’t necessarily happen every time I practice plein air painting, but it’s nice when it does happen. Sometimes people come up to me and ask about my painting, which is always a good thing to happen. I enjoy chatting to people I meet while working outdoors – it’s something that wouldn’t happen if I was working indoors. You never know what interesting people you might meet or what interesting new things you could learn from them. Whenever someone you don’t know says they like you work, it makes you feel good and it’s one of the best things I like about being an artist.

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Art is subjective and there’s no definitive answer to the question ‘what makes art unique?’ Every artist has their own style and creates their art in their own particular way, but there’s not set list of things you have to do to make your art unique.

Making your art unique can help you in two ways: first, it can expand your creative horizons and keep art exciting and interesting. Have a think to yourself about the art you’ve created so far and ask yourself whether you truly think it’s different from what others are doing? Is there something you can definitely say is unique to your work? Art is about expressing yourself, but it can also be about self-discovery and trying new things. If you look at your artwork and you think it’s quite similar to what others are doing, think about how you can put a twist on it.

You might have painted a well-known landscape that many others have painted. Take the White Cliffs of Dover, for example. The cliffs are a well-known landmark and have appeared in a lot of paintings. Have a look at these paintings – try Google, for example – and have a quick glance over the paintings. See which ones catch your attention and ask yourself why. A lot of landscapes of famous landmarks tend to be painted in summery weather. Why not paint a landmark in the snow? If lots of the paintings don’t include people or animals, include people and animals. If lots of artists have painted a landmark from a particular angle, try a different one. These are just some ideas of how you can think outside the box. Art is much more fun and rewarding when you start exploring new ideas and pushing your creativity to its limit.

The second way making your art unique can help you is that it can help your art business. Like I said before, the market is very crowded and there’s a constant influx of artists trying to make it. If you can find some niche - something that sets you apart from the crowd - and market it well enough, you could be on to a winner. There’s no guarantee that other people will find your art unique, but it’s definitely worth trying. People take more interest in something that’s different. Stand out from the crowd in your art and people should pay more attention to your work. The people who appreciate uniqueness the most are the ones who a really into art and know their subject matter. If you can carve a niche for yourself and market this to people who are in the know, you’ve got the ball rolling.

When it comes to marketing your art, you have to sell yourself as much as your art. Once you’ve come up with your nice, that special something that makes your art unique and sets you apart from the competition, bring this up in all your marketing. Be sure to let people know that this is your art and there’s something unique about it. Show people what’s unique and tell them what’s unique. You have a unique selling point and by focusing your marketing around that, you should give people more of a reason to buy into you and your art.

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